With the growth in mobile data access through smartphones and similar devices, mobile device users who visit locations frequently search information regarding such locations or other complementary or competing locations while actually at a location. This new type of data provides opportunities to customize visitor experiences or to predict visitor behavior. Geospatial location data is routinely generated by mobile devices using various terrestrial and satellite methods, such as cellular network tower triangulation, wireless node identification, or Global Positioning System (GPS) location determination techniques. These techniques can vary significantly in their accuracy, with GPS techniques usually providing the greatest degree of accuracy but consuming the most power.
Additionally, a variety of computer-implemented mapping techniques have been developed to plot geospatial coordinates against known landmarks on electronic maps. These techniques typically define a location by a point coordinate and a radius, such that any observed geospatial location data within a circular area around the point coordinate are considered to be at the location. Very few areas of interest in the world are actually circular, however, resulting in false positives or false negatives when determining whether an observed geospatial location from a mobile device is at the location. In some situations, a low degree of accuracy is sufficient, such as where visitors are unlikely to be near the location for other purposes. For example, a shopping mall surrounded by a large parking lot on all sides may be adequately described by a point coordinate and radius because any mobile device users in the parking lot may be assumed to be at such location in order to visit the shopping mall. In situations where mobile device users may be near the area of interest for unrelated reasons or where competing locations may be in close proximity, it becomes useful to distinguish between actual visitors to the area of interest and other mobile device users who are merely nearby. Comparing mobile device geospatial location data against point coordinates based upon simple distance measurements is insufficient for such situations. The inventive concepts described herein are directed to distinguishing between mobile device users within an area of interest and mobile device users near but not within the area of interest.